Confused About My Test Results

[508]

So I added those pure aquarium balls yesterday which contain bacteria and supposedly make your tank cycle quicker. 3 or 4 days ago I only had ammonia in the tank, both nitrates and nitrites were at 0. Today I did all three tests again and I got these results, can anyone determine what exactly my readings are?
 

 

[fluttermoth]

It is hard to be 100% certain with a picture, rather than seeing the actual tests but, at a guess, I'd say; ammonia 2, nitrite 5 and nitrate 80 ish.
 
If nitrite and nitrate were both 0 previously, your cycle's definitely on the move

 

[508]

Oops, I realized I blocked the least bottom reading of nitrate which is 160ppm, not 60. Does that change anything or is it still about 80?

 

[fluttermoth]

I would still say about 80; I use the API tests as well, so I knew you'd covered the first digit up

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd say you are heading the right direction. 

 

[508]

Wow, so the pure aquarium balls actually do work. Great!

 

[fluttermoth]

Wow, so the pure aquarium balls actually do work. Great!

I'm not sure I'd go that far, but they certainly seem to being something in this case

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No they do nothing in terms of the cycle. I have pointed you to and quoted the part in the PFK article which states unequivocally they do not help with the cycle..

Multi-tasker
The winning factor is the omission of any claim that this will start an aquarium cycle. The product is intended as a standalone to existing biological activity, and although it claims to —and by all accounts should — help establish tanks, it’s not intended as a sole developer of filter bacteria.

from http/www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/PFK_Review.pdf
 
They go on to say they have no clue if the balls have:

It’s harder for us to comment on ammonia or nitrate reduction

 
And notice that they do not even mention nitrite. Almost anything that helps with the cycle helps with both ammonia and nitrite but not nitrate which is handled by other means (plants and/or water changes). The fact that your nitrites are likely off the scale tells us that the tank is cycling and had almost no nitrite oxidizing bacteria to speak of present.
 
Ammonia goes up because you have added it (I assume you are doing a fishless cycle). It stays up until the ammonia oxidizers reproduce and begin converting it to nitrite. Ammonia then drops even as nitrite rises. Your tank seem to be behaving normally for a cycle with little or no nitrifying bacteria having been added.
 
Mostly what you get from those balls are heterotrophic bacteria not the autotrophic nitrfyers. Any benefit from this product is likely not in terms of cycling, at least not in terms of providing any of the desired bacteria.

 

[508]

No they do nothing in terms of the cycle. I have pointed you to and quoted the part in the PFK article which states unequivocally they do not help with the cycle..

Multi-tasker
The winning factor is the omission of any claim that this will start an aquarium cycle. The product is intended as a standalone to existing biological activity, and although it claims to —and by all accounts should — help establish tanks, it’s not intended as a sole developer of filter bacteria.

from http/www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/PFK_Review.pdf
 
They go on to say they have no clue if the balls have:

It’s harder for us to comment on ammonia or nitrate reduction

 
And notice that they do not even mention nitrite. Almost anything that helps with the cycle helps with both ammonia and nitrite but not nitrate which is handled by other means (plants and/or water changes). The fact that your nitrites are likely off the scale tells us that the tank is cycling and had almost no nitrite oxidizing bacteria to speak of present.
 
Ammonia goes up because you have added it (I assume you are doing a fishless cycle). It stays up until the ammonia oxidizers reproduce and begin converting it to nitrite. Ammonia then drops even as nitrite rises. Your tank seem to be behaving normally for a cycle with little or no nitrifying bacteria having been added.
 
Mostly what you get from those balls are heterotrophic bacteria not the autotrophic nitrfyers. Any benefit from this product is likely not in terms of cycling, at least not in terms of providing any of the desired bacteria.


 
What else could it have been? Before my ammonia was at 4ppm, and both the nitrates and nitrites were at 0

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Read the cycling article. Ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate.
 
If you had 4 ppm of ammonia and now have 2 ppm, that means about 2 ppm was converted to nitrite, 2 ppm of ammonia should become about 5.1 ppm of nitrite. Of course if you had added some nitrite oxidizing bacteria (i.e. they were in the balls) then you would be seeing clearly under 5 ppm of nitrite for sure. But you have 5 ppm or more. This certainly indicates the lack of meaningful nitrite bacs in the tank.
 
How long was the 4 ppm in your tank before it started to drop? Check the cycling article and look at the graph. You will see that 3 ppm of ammonia drops in half in about 5 or so days. And this is not set in stone it can be a bit less or a bunch more based on other factors such as ph, temp., amount of bacteria coming in with one's tap. etc.
 
The nitrate test is awful in terms of accuracy and you must subtract the ppm of nitrite in a tank from the nitrate reading to get it proper even though still off. You also need to test your tap for nitrate as well as many folks have some in their water and you must also subtract these to make your reading informative. The real keys to cycling are in the ammonia and nitrite both of which are more accurately tested using API kits than the nitrate.
 
1 ppm of ammonia --> 2.55 ppm Nitrite --> 3.44 ppm based on the molecular weights involved.
 
Just because two events occur in a similar time span does not mean there is any causal relationship between them. What I believe you saw was a coincidence and not a cause and effect.